Player Report: University of Iowa’s Mike McQuillan, EP Little League and Junior League graduate

Mike McQuillan, Junior, Infielder

2002 - Graduated Evergreen Park Little League. All-Star team finished third in state. Pitched 9 innings in one of the most legendary Illinois State tournament games ever!

LITTLE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER’S BRACKET GAME SUM:

Winner’s Bracket Finals

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

R

H

E

Bradley-Bourbonnais American

0

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

3

7

-

-

Evergreen Park

0

0

0

0

4

0

0

0

0

2

6

-

-

Bradley-Bourbonnais then advanced to the championship game by outlasting Evergreen Park 7-6 in TENinnings. Pitcher Adam Teter drilled a two-run homer in the second to key a three-run Bradley-Bourbonnais rally, and the District 18 champions stretched their lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Jeff Schweigert reached on an error that scored Teter.

Teter carried the 4-0 lead into the fifth before tiring, and Evergreen Park rallied. Pitcher Michael McQuillan’s RBI single chased Teter as three Evergreen Park batters reached base. After a strikeout, Julian Lazzara lined a three-run homer over the left field fence to tie the score.

McQuillan and B-B reliever Josh Themer stymied opposing hitters as the score remained 4-4 into extra innings. The hard-throwing McQuillan had to depart the mound after nine innings due to Little League pitching rules, and Teter took advantage of the change by driving a three-run homer to right-center field to give his team a 7-4 lead. Alex Taylor’s RBI single in the bottom of the frame cut the lead to 7-5, and Sean Lynch’s RBI groundout drove in another run — but an Evergreen Park baserunner was thrown out at third to turn the groundout into an unusual double play. B-B reliever Jordan Jaenicke then induced a groundout to end the game.

River Forest, which bounced back from its opening round loss by eliminating Clear Ridge and Macomb, then defeated Evergreen Park 9-4 to earn a rematch with the Americans. River Forest overwhelmed Evergreen Park with a six-run second inning rally, as Golz pitched a complete game and drove in a pair of runs.

High School - Earned four years of all-conference honors… an all-district selection all four years… was ranked the No. 47 player in the state of Illinois by PG Crosschecker… two-time team MVP… received honor of being on first team all-state his senior year… second team all-state his junior year… two-time team captain… holds the records for single-season total bases, hits and runs scored… member of the state qualifying Brother Rice team in 2007… played on the Illinois Sparks from 2006-2008… earned two letters in football as the punter, kicker and quarterback.

2009 - Appeared in 37 games with 26 starts… started 25 games at second base with one start in left field… scored a season-high four runs at Tennessee-Martin (Mar. 18)… drove in an Iowa freshman season-high 20 RBI… second-best batting average at .363… highest freshman batting average on the team… most games started by an Iowa freshman… team-high batting average in conference games (.431)… six of his seven stolen bases were in Big Ten contests… fourth-best slugging percentage (.513)… team-best on base percentage (.451)… tied for second best with six hit-by-pitches… hit best in the sixth inning with a .455 average… recorded 12 multi-hit games… recorded first collegiate hit at Austin Peay (Mar. 6), going 1-for-6 with two RBI… hit first career home run at Tennessee-Martin (Mar. 18), going 3-for-5 with four runs scored, one RBI, a homer and two walks… compiled six multi-RBI games… third-longest hit streak on the team at 12 games.

2010 - Appeared in 56 games, all of which were starts… his 56 starts ranked the second-most on the team… started 54 at second base and two at DH… batted primarily in the two or three spot… had the second-highest batting average (.344) on the team… started in 24 Big Ten games… hit a solid .368 in conference play… had a stellar season opener, going 3-for-6 with three runs scored, seven RBI, one double and two homers against Illinois State (Feb. 20)… the seven RBI was a team season-best… led the team in sacrifice flies (6)… his six sacrifice flies puts him at fifth in the Iowa record books… had the second-most hits (73)… ranked second in assists (133)… finished with the second-highest on base percentage (.415) and RBI (39)… drove in a team-high 21 two-out RBI… drew the second-most walks of any Hawkeye (23)… finished third in runs scored (38)… had the third-most sac bunts (5)… ranked third in at-bats (212)… his two triples and three home runs were the fourth-highest… finished with the fifth-highest slugging percentage (.439) and stolen bases (8)… had the second-most multi-hit games (24)… collected five multi-RBI games… recorded a team-long 16-game hit streak.

Personal – Born 10/2/89… parents are Robert and Karyn McQuillan… interdepartmental studies major.

Mike McQuillan comes from Evergreen Park, Illinois where he attended Brother Rice High School. Mike made a name for him while at Brother Rice as he holds the record for single-season total bases, hits, and runs scored. Mike graduated from Brother Rice in 2008 and chose to attend The University of Iowa on a baseball scholarship.In his freshman year at Iowa, McQuillan made an immediate impact batting .363 which was good enough for second on the team as a true freshman. Mike batted a team high in conference play, batting .431 in the Big Ten.In 2010, Mike started all 56 games for the Hawkeyes batting .344. McQuillan looks to guide the Iowa Hawkeyes to a Big Ten championship in 2011 after the Hawks fell short in the Big Ten Tournament championship game to Minnesota.Mike talks with The Daily Dugout about various topics like:

Hitting With Wood

The Mental Game

The Hardest Pitch To Hit

His Hitting Routine

Plus Much More!

Mike on Hitting With Wood and The Mental Game

“The difference for me is the size of the sweet spot. With wood, if you consistantly put the good part of the bat on the ball you will have success. With metal bats you can get away with a lot more.”

“The mental game for me is very important. You have so many responsibilities as a middle (infield) guy that you have to have a check list every pitch. What’s the situation? Where are your outfielders? What’s the report on the hitter? What has he done that day? What is his speed? I am very fortunate to have a great coaching staff that helps prepare us for each game. Then when the pitch is delivered, you have to be aware of your positioning and where you are going to anticipate the ball going. Finally, I have to know what I am going to do when the ball is hit to me. This all involves various parts of the mental game, mainly staying pitch to pitch.”

Mike on The Best Advice He Has Received and The Hardest Pitch To Hit

“The best advice I’ve ever recieved is: be who you are. Don’t try to do too much. If you worry about who you are and what you can do, that’s enough. Confidence is the biggest thing you must have to trust your talents.”

“To me the best pitch, the hardest pitch to recognize and hit hard is a well located fastball. After that changeups.”

“Fall practice to me is a time to work on things. I usually don’t hit like I do in the spring (in the fall) because I am working on getting into spring shape. It’s the time to hit the weights and run. Fall is where you get better, for me it is mostly physically.”

“I don’t have any specific drills I “love”. I like swinging off tees, front toss, batting practice, etc. Defensively I like taking grounders to work on my feet, roll some double plays and get consistant around the bag.”

Mike on His Routine and Baserunning

“My routine is to sweep the box, survey the field and lock into the pitcher. After that I usually don’t hear much around me it’s like tunnel vision. After the pitch, I refocus and repeat my routine. This helps me stay locked in to each and every pitch.”

“Baserunning is very important at Iowa, we are working on it daily. Everyone is different with their leads and reads, putting pressure on the defense is the way to go. The key to good baserunning is repetition and having a good feel for the game.”

Mike on Other Subjects

“I can be a zoo sometimes on defense. I will make a routine play look hard and the hard one easy, you just need to make the routine play and you will succeed, the spectacular plays come when you make the routine ones. That comes with staying pitch to pitch like I noted before.”

“Pitchers in college work backwards a lot. By backwards I mean starting off with offspeed pitches and then come with the fastball later in the at-bat. It s a see it and react deal. Guess hitters in college will struggle. If you are a guess hitter, you better not miss your pitch because you only get one good pitch to see per at-bat.”

“The most important thing to me is doing your job in hitting. Situational hitting will get you to the next level. If you can control the barrel. You will succeed.”